Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The crisis in the cost of living for people across the country is at an extreme level. Utility bills are going through the roof. Many people are getting bills of €600, €700, €800 or €900. Most families do not have that kind of cash lying around for such bills and some are getting into debt in order to try to cover the cost of them.

The number of people who have contacted my offices across my constituency of Meath West and Meath in general over the past couple of weeks and detailed the increases in their bills is incredible. One household saw their gas bill go from €91 to €206 from one billing period to the next. Another's Energia bill went from €156 to €342. A gas bill went from €280 to €620. Another family said that they were paying €864 for electricity having previously been charged €209. For one family, a bill for €1,200 came in for gas and electricity at a single moment. Those types of bill increases put the so-called supports that the Government has come up with in the ha'penny place.

The truth of the matter is that the spending power of someone on the average income in the State has fallen by €2,000 in the space of a year. That is a significant reduction. When you compare that reduction in salary for members of the general public with the largesse of the Government in giving a €100,000 increase to the Secretary General of the Department of Health, it shows how we have a tale of two countries. There are two parallel experiences and existences happening under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the State.

The Government has been great in saying that these price increases are as a result of external issues, but the truth is that Ireland is now the sixth most expensive state in the EU. Dublin is the third most expensive city in the whole of Europe. Currently, only two Swiss cities out-cost Dublin.

We have a cost-of-living crisis that is affecting so many things. It is affecting families' ability to pay their bills and to live, but it is also affecting this country's ability to compete internationally. If the cost of living goes out of control with runaway inflation rates in this State, what you will see is our inability to compete with other European countries and other locations internationally for jobs and investment in the future. It is working against our long-term economic interests as well. The issue is certainly getting worse.

The problem I have is that the Government has control over a number of levers but it refuses to operate them. I have ask the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, on a dozen occasions why he will not find a tax for houses that are vacant in the State and, in committee and here in the Dáil, he has said that he wants to find out more about it and does not want to rush into doing anything. There could be many other reasons. What the Minister has displayed is a complete lack of urgency at time when urgency is required.

The issue of childcare is hammering so many families at present. It is equivalent to a second mortgage. I have been talking to people in the industry today who tell me that the Minister and the Taoiseach are going out in public saying that there will be a cap on childcare prices in the State when, in fact, they still have not come to any negotiation or deal with the childcare sector. They have not told the childcare sector what level of income it will receive from the State and yet they are publicly saying that the childcare sector will not increase the cost of childcare in the future. We are still significantly behind other European countries with the level of investment that we are making in childcare.

Then, of course, you have the issue of the litre of fuel at the pumps. Sixty per cent of the price of fuel goes into the Government's pocket. We have a Government which is introducing carbon taxes on a population years in advance and which is completely oblivious to the conditions that those people will be experiencing at that time, and yet it will add that tax - one of the blindest and most blunt taxes that I have ever seen - to the cost-of-living crisis in May.

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